FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA (December 4, 2012) The
International Parking Institute announced today it has joined the
Washington, D.C-based Merchant Payments Coalition in an effort to
fight unfair swipe fees imposed by big banks and credit card
companies.

The Merchants Payments Coalition is a group of retailers,
supermarkets, drug stores, convenience stores, fuel stations,
online merchants, and other businesses that are fighting for a more
competitive and transparent card system that works better for
consumers and merchants alike. The coalition's member associations
collectively represent approximately 2.7 million facilities with 50
million employees.

"We're joining the Merchants Payments Coalition to strengthen
our voice on an issue that is critically important to our members.
Unfair price-fixed swipe fees are hurting parking businesses and
customers," said Shawn Conrad, CAE, executive director of the
International Parking Institute.

According to Conrad, swipe fees are increasingly relevant in the
parking sector as advanced technology is making pay-by-credit or
debit more common

"The Merchants Payments Coalition welcomes the participation of
the International Parking Institute and its member organizations as
we advocate for competition and fairness in the swipe fee market,"
said MPC Chairman Mallory Duncan, senior vice president and general
counsel at the National Retail Federation.

"Banks and the parking industry are both examples of businesses
that have made widespread use of technology to bring down their
costs of doing business," Duncan said. "But banks keep raising
swipe fees, wiping out the savings seen in the parking industry and
driving up prices paid by consumers. The credit card companies that
set swipe fees on behalf of the big banks are engaged in the kind
of price-fixing that is illegal in other parts of the economy and
should be illegal in the payments market as well."

Visa and MasterCard together control 80 percent of the card
market, allowing them to dictate the swipe fees charged for each
purchase. In the U.S., banks charge between 2 and 3 percent of
every credit card purchase--equal to or even higher than merchants'
1 to 3 percent average profit margin. The fees also drive up prices
for consumers, costing the average U.S. household more than $400 a
year.

Read more about how the broken market for swipe fees affect
businesses, consumers, and the American economy
here.

Credit card swipe fees remain unregulated, but Federal Reserve
regulations that took effect in 2011 cut debit swipe fees roughly
in half for many transactions. However, the regulations allowed
networks to raise swipe fees for low dollar purchases such as
parking fees by as much as three times their previous amount.
A number of merchant organizations have filed a lawsuit challenging
this regulation.